The discussion revolving around ‘freebies’ has become complicated with the Supreme Court now asking the center as well as the political parties such as AAP and DMK to explain what the ‘freebies’ mean because the entire matter has been caught in the middle of welfare and influencing people—through various means—ahead of elections. In actuality, something that duly needs to be noted is that, both the extremes seem to be overlapping at some point in time where a fine line that differentiates the two needs to be respected and adhered to.
There are two shapes that doing something ‘good’ can take: one is that it can really be the welfare of the people which indeed is the responsibility and duty of the elected Government and to do that, the elected Government does not need to wait for a specific time—it just has to go on with it as a continuous process. However, when the time factor jumps in, the same welfare becomes a freebie, which then has several contours and is decoded in a varied number of ways, and becomes a tricky part of it.
The entire focus, therefore, returns to the timing of a launch of a scheme, specific subsidy, health benefits, or for that matter, free and quality education: which AAP has been doing over time in Delhi. At the same time, the parties that are not in the Government and appear all of a sudden to do ‘welfare’ works in states that are due for elections need to be restrained because there, the intent is very much clear. More importantly, the BJP—which is these days highlighting the matter while the PM termed the freebies dangerous for the development—needs to be pulled up for what it did in Uttar Pradesh ahead of elections, and be asked what was that? Revdis, or welfare?
While the matter is in front of the SC, there is a need for a meticulous analysis of all the angles related to the freebies. There is no denying the fact that the political parties, including those in power, launch key Government schemes at the eleventh hour, obviously to influence voters, which calls for necessary directions from the SC so that the money which belongs to people is only used for their welfare and not as party fund of any political outfit, aiming power, or trying to keep hold of power. It is crystal clear how the center, as well as other political parties, will define freebies, but the SC now needs to interpret it all per the law of the land, which prohibits influence using public money and guarantees the overall welfare of the citizens of India, something that the apex court now needs to reinforce once and for all.
